Character of Lord Chesterfield.

And kind well-temper'd satire, smoothly keen,
Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects.
Or, rising thence with yet a brighter flame,

O let me hail thee on some glorious day,

When to the listening senate, ardent, crowd

680

BRITANNIA'S sons to hear her pleaded cause.

Then drest by thee, more amiably fair,
Truth the soft robe of mild persuasion wears:
Thou to assenting reason giv'st again

Her own enlighten'd thoughts; call'd from the heart,
Th' obedient passions on thy voice attend;

And ev❜n reluctant party feels awhile

Thy gracious power: as through the varied maze

Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong,

690

Profound and clear, you roll the copious flood.
To thy lov'd haunt return, my happy Muse:
For now, behold, the joyous winter-days,
Frosty, succeed; and through the blue serene,
For sight too fine, th' ethereal nitre flies,

Killing infectious damps, and the spent air
Storing afresh with elemental life.

695

Close crowds the shining atmosphere; and binds
Our strengthen'd bodies in its cold embrace,

Frost beneficial.

Constringent; feeds, and animates our blood;
Refines our spirits, through the new-strung nerves,
In swifter sallies darting to the brain;

Where sits the soul, intense, collected, cool,
Bright as the skies, and as the season keen.

All Nature feels the renovating force
Of Winter, only to the thoughtless eye
In ruin seen. The frost-concocted glebe
Draws in abundant vegetable soul,
And gathers vigour for the coming year.
A stronger glow sits on the lively cheek
Of ruddy fire and luculent along

The purer rivers flow; their sullen deeps,
Transparent, open to the shepherd's gaze,
And murmur hoarser at the fixing frost.

705

710

What art thou, frost? and whence are thy keen stores Deriv'd, thou secret all-invading power!

715

Whom ev'n th' illusive fluid cannot fly?

Is not thy potent energy, unseen,

Myriads of little salts, or hook'd, or shap'd

Like double wedges, and diffus'd immense

Through water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve," 720 Steam'd eager from the red horizon round,

Description of Frost.

With the fierce rage of Winter deep suffus'd,
An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool

Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career
Arrests the bickering stream.

The loosen'd ice, 725

Let down the flood, and half dissolv'd by day,
Rustles no more; but to the sedgy bank
Fast grows; or gathers round the pointed stone,
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven
Cemented firm; till, seiz'd from shore to shore,
The whole imprison'd river growls below.
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects
A double noise; while, at his evening watch,
The village dog deters the nightly thief;
The heifer lows; the distant waterfall

730

735

Swells in the breeze; and, with the hasty tread
Of traveller, the hollow-sounding plain
Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round,
Infinite worlds disclosing to the view,

Shines out intensely keen; and, all one cope

740

Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole.

From pole to pole the rigid influence falls, Through the still night, incessant, heavy, strong, And seizes Nature fast. It freezes on;

Winter Amusements.

Till morn, late rising o'er the drooping world,

Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears

The various labour of the silent night:

745

Prone from the dripping cave, and dumb cascade,
Whose idle torrents only seem to roar,
The pendant icicle; the frost-work fair,
Where transient hues, and fanci'd figures rise;
Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook,
A livid track, cold-gleaming on the morn;
The forest bent beneath the plumy wave;
And by the frost refin'd the whiter snow,
Incrusted hard, and sounding to the tread
Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks

His pining flock; or from the mountain top,
Pleas'd with the slippery surface, swift descends.

750

755

On blithsome frolics bent, the youthful swains, 760 While every work of Man is laid at rest,

Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport
And revelry dissolv'd; where mixing glad,
Happiest of all the train! the raptur'd boy
Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine
Branch'd out in many a long canal extends,
From every province swarming, void of care,

765

Winter Amusements.

Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep,

On sounding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,

770

The then gay land is madden'd all to joy.

Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the snow,

Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid sleds,

Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel
The long-resounding course.. Meantime, to raise 775
The manly strife, with highly-blooming charms,
Flush'd by the season, Scandinavia's dames,

Or Russia's buxom daughters, glow around.

Pure, quick, and sportful, is the wholesome day;

But soon elaps'd. The horizontal sun,

780

Broad o'er the south, hangs at his utmost noon;
And, ineffectual, strikes the gelid cliff:

His azure gloss the mountain still maintains,

Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale
Relents awhile to the reflected ray;

785

Or from the forest falls the cluster'd snow,
Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam
Gay twinkle as they scatter. Thick around
Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun,

And dog impatient bounding at the shot,

790